Bitcoin Lottery

Introduction

Just exactly why is poker so popular? Although in recent years there has been a veritable explosion in the number of people playing poker since the advent of internet poker, is the popularity that poker now enjoys solely down to the internet. Whilst poker websites have certainly led to an increase in the number of poker players world-wide there can be no doubt that TV, and to a lesser extent the movies, have also helped to change the image of poker to one that is far more publicly acceptable than would have been thought possible in the recent past.

Poker, the respectable game

For many years poker was, quite unjustly, seen as a game played by rogues and vagabonds in dim and dingy bars and back-rooms. Yet it would seem that quite literally in the last 10 years or so – poker has attained a respectability and acceptance as a card game that can now be played and enjoyed openly anywhere and anytime. This transformation in the image of poker now means that TV channels regularly feature poker games and we are all accustomed to seeing and reading about professional poker stars, that are now house-hold names, playing in tournaments all over the world. Indeed even ten years ago who would have thought you’d see James Bond playing poker, rather than Black Jack or roulette, in Casino Royale which was set in the world renowned casino center of Monte Carlo?

Viva Las Vegas

I think we need to say “hats off to Las Vegas“ regarding this turn-around in the fortunes of poker from back-street to High Street sport and entertainment. Having cleaned up its image by the late 1960s Las Vegas quickly became the ‘Mecca’ of gambling for Americans. Of course Las Vegas didn’t just become the home of poker – but of all casino and gambling games. However, Las Vegas did make one massive contribution to the rise in popularity of poker, and as far back as 1970. The inaugural WSOP tournament took place in 1970, which was then only an invitational event contested by just 6 professional poker players. However, it was the 1972 winner of the WSOP, from a field of just 8 players and winning a prize of $80,000, Thomas Austin ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston who, arguably as a result of his win, became the first modern day media face of poker. This is because following his win he was invited onto many TV chat-shows where, being a genial sort of person, he was able to present both himself and poker as a game not to be feared as a potentially corrupting influence – but one that could simply be played for gain as a professional or simply played for personal enjoyment. However, lest we forget, without the WSOP in Las Vegas the chance that such a person would have appeared on TV in those days was small indeed.

Poker and the internet

For anyone that has grown up in a world of computers and the internet it must seem strange indeed that there was once a time when finding out anything about poker was difficult to say the least. Today websites abound relaying to us the latest news from both casino and online poker tournaments, not to mention giving us the opportunity to play poker without even leaving our homes. However, the fact is that internet poker has done far more than those two things. By making poker games and information so accessible, poker websites have in effect forced the TV companies to review their opinions of how to treat the game. The life-blood of TV channels is their ratings as without ratings they get no advertising revenue. So, when they see people tuning in to webcasts of poker games and tournaments, not to mention the vast interest in online poker – they see a market that they know they need to tap into. The result of this is that in recent years several game shows using a poker format have arisen. Whilst this is good news for poker fans everywhere, it actually has a deeper societal significance. People who might otherwise have thought poker to still be a game only unsavory characters might play – seeing it on TV will adjust their opinion and change their minds to making poker a sociably acceptable game. In this way poker is gaining a new found respectability which, it can only be hoped, will eventually result in a loosening of the restrictive laws governing the playing of internet poker.